StoPPeRmobile:maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: Generation_D: maxalt: Almost every movie with low moral standards fails at the box office but is praised by Hollywood elite, while so called wholesome movies succeed. But the movers and shakers in Hollywood consider any movie denouncing God or religion to be avant-garde and praise the writers producers and such. Used to be when the Jews owed Hollywood they liked sand and sandals movies because they were sure money in the bank. I know times change but people don't, most of the middle of the country and the south are god fearing folk and prefer wholesome entertainment.

I got you tagged as "right wing derp."

nailed it

I am not of any formal party, just a believer in God.

Does she talk to you?

Why do you think insults are intelligent conversation, not even funny or well thought out insults. If you really desire to insult someone it requires that you make a point showing the other person lack of thought or intelligence, (by the way intelligence means smarts). If you had any knowledge of the Bible you would know that God is male as he spoke to several people ie Noah with a deep booming voice and the angels referred to God as he, try again Mr. Smarts.

Hah! The bible says that we are made in his image. So, does Pat talk to you?

No I have never heard God talk to me, I have never seen a thought but does that mean thoughts don't exist. As a matter of fact if God ever did talk to me I would probably load up my pants. By the way in the Bible God said his name was Yahweh, not Pat.

maxalt:StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: Generation_D: maxalt: Almost every movie with low moral standards fails at the box office but is praised by Hollywood elite, while so called wholesome movies succeed. But the movers and shakers in Hollywood consider any movie denouncing God or religion to be avant-garde and praise the writers producers and such. Used to be when the Jews owed Hollywood they liked sand and sandals movies because they were sure money in the bank. I know times change but people don't, most of the middle of the country and the south are god fearing folk and prefer wholesome entertainment.

I got you tagged as "right wing derp."

nailed it

I am not of any formal party, just a believer in God.

Does she talk to you?

Why do you think insults are intelligent conversation, not even funny or well thought out insults. If you really desire to insult someone it requires that you make a point showing the other person lack of thought or intelligence, (by the way intelligence means smarts). If you had any knowledge of the Bible you would know that God is male as he spoke to several people ie Noah with a deep booming voice and the angels referred to God as he, try again Mr. Smarts.

Hah! The bible says that we are made in his image. So, does Pat talk to you?

No I have never heard God talk to me, I have never seen a thought but does that mean thoughts don't exist. As a matter of fact if God ever did talk to me I would probably load up my pants. By the way in the Bible God said his name was Yahweh, not Pat.

Wow you really are an interesting person. I am reminded of the natives in the South Pacific who asked a priest if their relatives went to heaven because they had never heard of God. They wondered if not knowing would condemn them to hell. The priest replied that they were judged as a new born therefore without sin and yes they were in Heaven, at that the natives asked if that were the case why did you ever tell me about God.Will all of my family and friends go to heaven, probably not but I am not the judge so what little I know says probably not. I once asked a fellow believer if Adolf Hitler could have gone to heaven if he repented and excepted Christ as his savior. He told me if he repented between the time he pulled the trigger and chomped down on the poison yes. I guess that would be the fastest anyone would have ever accepted Jesus. I think you need to view things in the way you might choose to do them, I cannot imagine a loving God bringing mentally challenged or tormented souls to endure everlasting torment. So much of the way God works is hard for me to understand, but it is not hard for me to believe, it is called faith. So lets for the sake of discussion place all of the people you have named in to one big pile. How can a truly loving God allow someone to be born deformed, or as my sister-in-law with the brain of an 8 month old even though she is in her 50's. My mother-in-law had German Measles during her pregnancy, so she was born severely retarded, why would a loving God allow that? I really don't know, but he has, why??? But there are things that are written so long ago that are now being found to be truth. God said in the beginning there was nothing and the universe was void until God said "Let there be light", now we know that there was a big bang that started the universe. Jesus did miracles on Earth and was witnessed by many people, I know I can't do miracles, nor can ANYONE. I think that sometime, many times actually, bible beaters profess to do miracles to enrich themselves and for selfish power. I rarely attend a organized church because I have my own relationship with the Lord. I realize I am not as good at explaining as you are at questioning but in the end it all comes down to faith. Oh and if your quirky friend is here with us he will be just as quirky in heaven, for I believe God does have a sense of humor. Remember he gave his only son to relive us of our sins. I was told by a preacher one time if I thought his sermons were too long what would I do if I got to heaven and had to spend eternity singing the praises of God. I told him if I had to listen to him for eternity then I would know I am in hell. Do you look forward to death are you bored with life in the here and now? Would you like your life to be much longer especially if you were always young? I know I love life here on this planet and would love to live to be 200 years old if I could still be active and pain free. In God house you will live for eternity enjoying what you love, personally I love to fix things so maybe there will be lots of broken clocks for me to mend. If I make little sense just remember this, God loves you and God wants you to be in Heaven enjoying the splendor of his creation and when you arrive there all will be reveled.

Ishkur:maxalt: If you are Christian then you know he he is a male because he got Mary pregnant. As to any other times he has used it I really have never given that a thought.

Okay, so if man was created in God's image, then from whose image was woman made? Who provided the template for the human uterus?

maxalt: When I am in heaven I will understand more than I do now and although I have no fear of death I am enjoying my time here in the physical plain so I am in no hurry to leave. Everyones' time here is limited but you time in heaven is ever lasting.

Are all your family and friends going to be in Heaven too? I guess they have to be because you might be unhappy if you find out that your mother didn't make it and since there is no unhappiness in Heaven, it can't be paradise if you miss some people and get depressed, so therefore everyone has to go on account of being related to everyone else.

And can you really be in a state of bliss all the time? Humans have a tendency to acclimatize to their mental and emotional states and there is a law of diminishing returns that accompanies subsequence experience. The first time you ride a rollercoaster is exciting and fun. The hundredth time, not so much. It becomes difficult to maintain the same level of exhilaration so the experience must get more extreme each time, like upping the dosage on a drug. Can Heaven really have the same impact the first day you arrive as it does the thousandth day? The millionth day? The trillionth day (and that's 2,739,726,027 or 2.7 billion years if you don't feel like doing the math, which is still insignificant compared to eternity)?

And why are the qualifications for admittance to Heaven or Hell so black and white? So it doesn't matter whether you sinned by having sex outside of marriage or by disemboweling a dozen people and hanging their bodies from meat hooks in your basement, they're both equitable sins that ban you from the promised afterlife. So you have to be absolutely perfect all your l ...

I replied but I didn't do it correctly I did not put it in the same message as you sent me it should be visible.

StoPPeRmobile:maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: Generation_D: maxalt: Almost every movie with low moral standards fails at the box office but is praised by Hollywood elite, while so called wholesome movies succeed. But the movers and shakers in Hollywood consider any movie denouncing God or religion to be avant-garde and praise the writers producers and such. Used to be when the Jews owed Hollywood they liked sand and sandals movies because they were sure money in the bank. I know times change but people don't, most of the middle of the country and the south are god fearing folk and prefer wholesome entertainment.

I got you tagged as "right wing derp."

nailed it

I am not of any formal party, just a believer in God.

Does she talk to you?

Why do you think insults are intelligent conversation, not even funny or well thought out insults. If you really desire to insult someone it requires that you make a point showing the other person lack of thought or intelligence, (by the way intelligence means smarts). If you had any knowledge of the Bible you would know that God is male as he spoke to several people ie Noah with a deep booming voice and the angels referred to God as he, try again Mr. Smarts.

Hah! The bible says that we are made in his image. So, does Pat talk to you?

No I have never heard God talk to me, I have never seen a thought but does that mean thoughts don't exist. As a matter of fact if God ever did talk to me I would probably load up my pants. By the way in the Bible God said his name was Yahweh, not Pat.

Hebrew doesn't have vowels.

I don't know the Hebrew alphabet I don't speak Hebrew it's the translation that causes these kinds of changes. Chinese has 40,000 symbols but somehow we manage to translate with only 26 symbols into English. I think the translation is more phonetic than letter for letter. And thanks I did not know Hebrew has no vowels. I love learning and to-day I learned something I did not know.

maxalt:StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: Generation_D: maxalt: Almost every movie with low moral standards fails at the box office but is praised by Hollywood elite, while so called wholesome movies succeed. But the movers and shakers in Hollywood consider any movie denouncing God or religion to be avant-garde and praise the writers producers and such. Used to be when the Jews owed Hollywood they liked sand and sandals movies because they were sure money in the bank. I know times change but people don't, most of the middle of the country and the south are god fearing folk and prefer wholesome entertainment.

I got you tagged as "right wing derp."

nailed it

I am not of any formal party, just a believer in God.

Does she talk to you?

Why do you think insults are intelligent conversation, not even funny or well thought out insults. If you really desire to insult someone it requires that you make a point showing the other person lack of thought or intelligence, (by the way intelligence means smarts). If you had any knowledge of the Bible you would know that God is male as he spoke to several people ie Noah with a deep booming voice and the angels referred to God as he, try again Mr. Smarts.

Hah! The bible says that we are made in his image. So, does Pat talk to you?

No I have never heard God talk to me, I have never seen a thought but does that mean thoughts don't exist. As a matter of fact if God ever did talk to me I would probably load up my pants. By the way in the Bible God said his name was Yahweh, not Pat.

Hebrew doesn't have vowels.

I don't know the Hebrew alphabet I don't speak Hebrew it's the translation that causes these kinds of changes. Chinese has 40,000 symbols but somehow we manage to translate with only 26 symbols into English. I think the translation is more phonetic than letter for letter. And thanks I did not know Hebrew has no vowels. I love learning and to-day I learned something I did not know.

maxalt:I replied but I didn't do it correctly I did not put it in the same message as you sent me it should be visible.

You certainly didn't. You avoided every one of my questions and then rambled in a big block of unreadable text with no discernible point.

Can you just focus for one second and address the direct paradox inherent through Heaven's mere existence?

For instance:

maxalt:How can a truly loving God allow someone to be born deformed, or as my sister-in-law with the brain of an 8 month old even though she is in her 50's. My mother-in-law had German Measles during her pregnancy, so she was born severely retarded, why would a loving God allow that? I really don't know, but he has, why???

That's not the question. The question is: Are these people going to be just as farked up in Heaven as they were in life? Are there mentally retarded people in Heaven or not? If yes, then how is that Heaven? If no, then they aren't really them (Heaven has effectively lobotomized them), so that still isn't Heaven.

StoPPeRmobile:maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: StoPPeRmobile: maxalt: Generation_D: maxalt: Almost every movie with low moral standards fails at the box office but is praised by Hollywood elite, while so called wholesome movies succeed. But the movers and shakers in Hollywood consider any movie denouncing God or religion to be avant-garde and praise the writers producers and such. Used to be when the Jews owed Hollywood they liked sand and sandals movies because they were sure money in the bank. I know times change but people don't, most of the middle of the country and the south are god fearing folk and prefer wholesome entertainment.

I got you tagged as "right wing derp."

nailed it

I am not of any formal party, just a believer in God.

Does she talk to you?

Why do you think insults are intelligent conversation, not even funny or well thought out insults. If you really desire to insult someone it requires that you make a point showing the other person lack of thought or intelligence, (by the way intelligence means smarts). If you had any knowledge of the Bible you would know that God is male as he spoke to several people ie Noah with a deep booming voice and the angels referred to God as he, try again Mr. Smarts.

Hah! The bible says that we are made in his image. So, does Pat talk to you?

No I have never heard God talk to me, I have never seen a thought but does that mean thoughts don't exist. As a matter of fact if God ever did talk to me I would probably load up my pants. By the way in the Bible God said his name was Yahweh, not Pat.

Ishkur:maxalt: I replied but I didn't do it correctly I did not put it in the same message as you sent me it should be visible.

You certainly didn't. You avoided every one of my questions and then rambled in a big block of unreadable text with no discernible point.

Can you just focus for one second and address the direct paradox inherent through Heaven's mere existence?

For instance:

maxalt: How can a truly loving God allow someone to be born deformed, or as my sister-in-law with the brain of an 8 month old even though she is in her 50's. My mother-in-law had German Measles during her pregnancy, so she was born severely retarded, why would a loving God allow that? I really don't know, but he has, why???

That's not the question. The question is: Are these people going to be just as farked up in Heaven as they were in life? Are there mentally retarded people in Heaven or not? If yes, then how is that Heaven? If no, then they aren't really them (Heaven has effectively lobotomized them), so that still isn't Heaven.

No as I read the Bible in Heaven we are all in God's image and I am sure he didn't make himself messed up.

No it's not, because you'll miss them, you'll be depressed, and then you'll shatter Heaven's mandate of pure, eternal bliss.

How can you enjoy Heaven if the people you love aren't there to enjoy it with you?

Look it is quite obvious that you don't care about how I answer your plan is to place conundrums in order to try to make me look stupid or confused. In the Bible it states all will be revealed when we reach Gods side. Now what I never got into is the battle for your soul that is taking place in the here and now. If you believe the Bible, Satan is constantly trying to get your soul for hell where he resides. The reason being is his battle with God for mans souls. Satan was the most beautiful angel in heaven until he tried to usurp Gods power, at which time he was cast out of heaven and forced to live eternity here on earth or in the domain he created referred to as hell. If you are a follower of Satan then you will spend eternity with Satan in his realm. I really don't mind you trying to make me into some bo-peep, in fact I would be disappointing if you didn't. I want you to know we all were non believers at one time. It seems easier to not set any rules and to live for today than it is to abide by rules and donate to your fellow man wishing nothing in return. One day I hope you find you way and see the value in belief.

maxalt:Look it is quite obvious that you don't care about how I answer

If I didn't care, I wouldn't have spent so much time typing that up in the first place. These are very real points of order that I have and I want rational explanations for what appears to be a breadth of paradoxes. I'm hoping you can answer them.

maxalt:your plan is to place conundrums in order to try to make me look stupid or confused.

They are conundrums, but its not my intention to confuse you. What part is confusing and would you like me to clarify.

maxalt:In the Bible it states all will be revealed when we reach Gods side.

Except for the people who are never going to get there. So what's the point of only revealing all to the people who apparently knew all along? That doesn't make any sense.

maxalt:Now what I never got into is the battle for your soul that is taking place in the here and now. If you believe the Bible, Satan is constantly trying to get your soul for hell where he resides. The reason being is his battle with God for mans souls. Satan was the most beautiful angel in heaven until he tried to usurp Gods power, at which time he was cast out of heaven and forced to live eternity here on earth or in the domain he created referred to as hell. If you are a follower of Satan then you will spend eternity with Satan in his realm. I really don't mind you trying to make me into some bo-peep, in fact I would be disappointing if you didn't.

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. The big question I have with this "battle for your soul" thing is who the hell knows which is the righteous path or not. For all we know Satan could have written the Bible (and if you've ever read it, there's a lot of evidence there that he probably did). He quotes scripture all the time... seriously, if faith is nothing more than accepting something as true irrespective of any evidence, then by what metric can you ascertain that either God or Satan is behind anything? ....they're both playing games and trying to trick us. Free will cannot exist in a Universe with an omniscient entity who can intervene at any time for any reason and leave no trace.

maxalt:I want you to know we all were non believers at one time. It seems easier to not set any rules and to live for today than it is to abide by rules and donate to your fellow man wishing nothing in return. One day I hope you find you way and see the value in belief.

Can I ask you an honest question? ....How does one "believe"? I'm not sure I even know how to do that. Does it require a lot of practice or should I just shut up and stop asking questions?

Please reply honestly. I'm not trying to be a smart ass, I'm sincerely fascinated in this conversation and I want you to help me out.

namatad:STRYPERSWINE: As a Christian, I'm mad at how horribly done this series is. Cheesy and lame and inaccurate. For centuries, Cristianity was responsible for the best art in the world. Now we're responsible for some of the worst.

I was under the impression that this was going to be HBO/Showtime quality and it would focus on some actual history.

umthe "history" channel was doing fiction.the bible is fiction.

the fact that some of the people, places and stories might be based on fact doesnt change that truth.WHY would you expect anything other from zealots?

I have no problem with xians making "the bible" - the miniseries. but pretending that it would be history and factually biased?HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ishkur:Can I ask you an honest question? ....How does one "believe"? I'm not sure I even know how to do that. Does it require a lot of practice or should I just shut up and stop asking questions?

I'm not sure I want to wade into this because faith is different for everybody and I don't think that there's one single, solid definition, but I'll take a shot.

I assume you're referring to "faith" as opposed to "believe," because "believe" just means to accept something as true without direct observation. I don't know that there are planets orbiting other stars because neither I nor anyone else can see them with our eyes. I do, however, believe that there are planets orbiting other stars because I see the evidence of their existence (or at least I see the reports of the evidence of their existence).

Faith is similar to belief, except that it deals in the unobservable. To me, faith is an acknowledgement that not everything is knowable. At its most basic, faith is trust based on hope. I hope that there is more to life than this; that we are here for a purpose and that there is an afterlife. But I have no way to prove those things are true and require faith to believe that they are true.

Maybe that's not a good explanation. I don't know. Like I said, faith is highly subjective thing that I don't think many can explain it fully.

rugman11:I assume you're referring to "faith" as opposed to "believe," because "believe" just means to accept something as true without direct observation.

No, for two reasons:

1) Direct observation is a very small segment of factual evidence. The vast majority of "stuff" that is the embodiment of human knowledge readily acceptable as "true" is not directly observed but rather arrived through a process of deductive reasoning and analysis of evidence. The police detective does not need to see the murder in order to ascertain who did it.

2) One can still directly observe something that doesn't exist anyway, such as when afflicted by a mental disorder or under the influence of emotional stress, pain, or drugs.

So direct observation in no way defines anything, either belief or fact. The only thing it affirms is that you have observed something.

I would define belief as accepting something as true irrespective of any factual evidence or objective confirmation (ie: a standard that exists outside of your own reasoning). In that sense -- I do not know how to do that.

rugman11:Faith is similar to belief, except that it deals in the unobservable. To me, faith is an acknowledgement that not everything is knowable.

No it's not. In fact, quite the exact opposite: Faith is the idea that the unknowable can be known, is known, and has been known for thousands of years, to be dealt out in generous quantities by succeeding hierarchies of superceding religions. Faith has no problems filling in knowledge gaps with speculative guesswork. Faith never proclaims that not everything is knowable.

Only science has no problem saying "I don't know." That's why it wants to figure out how it all works.

rugman11:At its most basic, faith is trust based on hope. I hope that there is more to life than this; that we are here for a purpose and that there is an afterlife. But I have no way to prove those things are true and require faith to believe that they are true.Maybe that's not a good explanation. I don't know. Like I said, faith is highly subjective thing that I don't think many can explain it fully.

And that, right there, I think is the problem. People deal with the Universe the way they want it to be rather than the way it actually is. I find such a mode of thought to be highly supercilious to be honest.

Yes, but who supplied the template for the human uterus since neither God nor Adam had one? ....Also, menstruation. Who came up with that and why?

Well Eve was not Adams 1st wife, if you read the Hebrew scriptures, but that is something else. Remember God made the Universe so any thing he wants is possible, if he wanted to leave Adam lonely that was his decision. Listen I am an engineer and it is in my nature to try to figure things out. Me and a couple of geysers invented stuff that made the company and us worth a lot more money and also helped clean the atmosphere for everyone. I am naturally inquisitive when it comes to everything. Two things started me down the path I am on now, 1) I had a life changing experience sort of like the main person in "All Quiet on the Western Front", I was expected to die and I recovered. I won't be able to explain what happened as it really is not within my realm of words. 2) When my mother was dying a calm came over her and she said "Oh Mama you are so beautiful" and smiled then was gone. Now as to our appearance, I think we see what we want to see in Heaven. I can not believe that God created the whole Universe so just Earth would be inhabited. I am quite sure that God has created life on many many planets. As far as the dinosaurs are concerned I think God had to let the Earth cook for awhile to make it ready for humans. One last thing, going to God is an individual experience, as far as I have found no one can take you there only you can reach that conclusion. Many people go to an organized church, I am not one of those. My relationship with God is very personal and private. When I pray for help, it is always for some one else as I believe I am blessed more than I ever thought i would be with peace and happiness. Mostly God is faith, there are many stories of people dying and finding themselves in Heaven or Hell only to be sent back to finish their time here on Earth. I know this is a long winded answer to a short question.menstruation. Who came up with that and why That was so Eve and Adam would populate the world, it sort of replicates the chain of life once a month. Remember the Earth is a battle between God and Satan, the out come has been know since the beginning Satan tried to change the inevitable. If you are really interested read, the only way to begin to learn any thing is to find what other people have learned in the past and consume their knowledge. Let their experience show you their thoughts and experiences, if you know a better way to learn then use that. I could teach you about almost anything but you have to come to God alone, the commitment is one only you can make.

maxalt:Well Eve was not Adams 1st wife, if you read the Hebrew scriptures,

I have. So why was Lilith not in the Bible and was only retconned through 12th century Aggadic Midrash Jewish fan fiction? What makes ANY extra-biblical literature -- the Talmud to Tosefta, Mishnah, Jubilees, Enoch, Ben-Sira, Habukkuk, Aggadah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Maccabees, Zohar, Sedar Olam, and any of the other 50+ non-canonical Epistles, Gospels, Acts, and Gnostics -- what makes ANY OF THEM MORE OR LESS TRUE than anything anyone else could write on a cocktail napkin? And that's not to count all the countless revisions, additions, deletions, sects, schisms, and different interpretations and rewritings of the Bible over the past two thousand years.... Who is really the arbiter of the absolute truth and knowledge that any single source conveys? How can you make that determination without any certainty and without evidence?

maxalt:Remember God made the Universe so any thing he wants is possible,

And apparently that choice is always benevolent? That's impossible. God can only be Good and God can only do Good. If He were Evil or if He did Evil, He would not be God. That makes Him just as deterministic as the people He controls. He is a slave to his own conceit.

maxalt:I am an engineer and it is in my nature to try to figure things out...I am naturally inquisitive when it comes to everything.

I have been surrounded by engineers my entire life, so I apologize if I sound demeaning, but from my experience engineers are not naturally inquisitive insomuch as they are SKILLED. They have been trained to problem solve a certain way, but not necessarily think critically about the problem. So they are NOT good at figuring things out, they are good at figuring ONE thing out, usually whatever ties to their profession ie: if all they know how to do is hammer, then they tend to solve every problem like its a nail.

If you were TRULY inquisitive and naturally want to understand how things work, you immediately should have stopped yourself when this happened:

Because eyewitness accounts are the lowest form of evidence gathering and are usually completely inadmissible in almost every field of scientific and rational inquiry. Except law.

As an engineer, you should understand, acknowledge and accept this.

maxalt:Mostly God is faith, there are many stories of people dying and finding themselves in Heaven or Hell only to be sent back to finish their time here on Earth.

Those aren't stories of people dying, those are stories of people being near-death and seeing hallucinations -- light at the end of the tunnel, angels, heaven, etc. Their brains are going through neurotropic shock and are releasing an extreme level of endorphines, inducing incredible visions and lucid states of alternative consciousness.

The stories of people who have been actually declared clinically brain dead, including one case of a man being dead for over 24 hours, suddenly coming back to life, and all of them assert the same experience: Nothing happens. It's like being asleep. They remember nothing.

Question: What do you suppose a world not being fought over by God and Satan would look like? Do you think it would be any better or worse than this one? Do you think you could tell the difference between the two, and if so, how? Would we still be fighting over religion if God and Satan weren't around? Without a standard of comparison, how can we be sure whether we're really living in the God-controlled world or not?

maxalt:I could teach you about almost anything but you have to come to God alone, the commitment is one only you can make.

You can? ...I have asked you dozens of questions and you have failed to answer a single one. What kind of teaching is that?

Ishkur:maxalt: Well Eve was not Adams 1st wife, if you read the Hebrew scriptures,

I have. So why was Lilith not in the Bible and was only retconned through 12th century Aggadic Midrash Jewish fan fiction? What makes ANY extra-biblical literature -- the Talmud to Tosefta, Mishnah, Jubilees, Enoch, Ben-Sira, Habukkuk, Aggadah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Maccabees, Zohar, Sedar Olam, and any of the other 50+ non-canonical Epistles, Gospels, Acts, and Gnostics -- what makes ANY OF THEM MORE OR LESS TRUE than anything anyone else could write on a cocktail napkin? And that's not to count all the countless revisions, additions, deletions, sects, schisms, and different interpretations and rewritings of the Bible over the past two thousand years.... Who is really the arbiter of the absolute truth and knowledge that any single source conveys? How can you make that determination without any certainty and without evidence?

maxalt: Remember God made the Universe so any thing he wants is possible,

And apparently that choice is always benevolent? That's impossible. God can only be Good and God can only do Good. If He were Evil or if He did Evil, He would not be God. That makes Him just as deterministic as the people He controls. He is a slave to his own conceit.

maxalt: I am an engineer and it is in my nature to try to figure things out...I am naturally inquisitive when it comes to everything.

I have been surrounded by engineers my entire life, so I apologize if I sound demeaning, but from my experience engineers are not naturally inquisitive insomuch as they are SKILLED. They have been trained to problem solve a certain way, but not necessarily think critically about the problem. So they are NOT good at figuring things out, they are good at figuring ONE thing out, usually whatever ties to their profession ie: if all they know how to do is hammer, then they tend to solve every problem like its a nail.

If you were TRULY inquisitive and naturally want to understand how things wo ...

I am truly questioning, as far as thinking out of the box at first I designed computer hard drives in the mid 70's, then I went on to design pollution monitoring equipment from scratch. Now I am working on a circuit board to recognize something that until now only a human could see, so believe me I do think out of the box. You have used or relied on something I designed or helped design many times in your life, provided you have used a computer, driven a car, drank clean water or breathed clean air. I have tired of this conversation, you see more interested in trying to make me into something I am not than really having a conversation. Bye Bye

Why? I thought you were an inquisitive person. Don't you want to know the answers?

maxalt:you see more interested in trying to make me into something I am not than really having a conversation.

I'm only responding to what you're posting, nothing more. If that's the impression you get, then maybe you should look at the way you communicate with others.

You seem to be more interesting in making yourself out to be the complete opposite of what you actually post, which I find highly unusual. That you now want to quit and run away instead of explore the issue further (after telling me how much of a fantastic free thinker you are) is very telling.